Cheng Ren-Chung, Zhang Shichang, Chen Yu-Chun, Lee Chia-Yi, Chou Yi-Ling, Ye Hui-Ying, Piorkowski Dakota, Liao Chen-Pan, Tso I-Min
Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung 40704, Taiwan.
Institute of Biology, Scientific Research Centre, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Novi trg 2, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
J Exp Biol. 2017 Jun 15;220(Pt 12):2260-2264. doi: 10.1242/jeb.153569. Epub 2017 Apr 10.
While molting occurs in the development of many animals, especially arthropods, post-maturity molting (PMM, organisms continue to molt after sexual maturity) has received little attention. The mechanism of molting has been studied intensively; however, the mechanism of PMM remains unknown although it is suggested to be crucial for the development of body size. In this study, we investigated factors that potentially induce PMM in the golden orb-web spider , which has the greatest degree of sexual dimorphism among terrestrial animals. We manipulated the mating history and the nutrient consumption of the females to examine whether they affect PMM. The results showed that female spiders under low nutrition were more likely to molt as adults, and mating had no significant influence on the occurrence of PMM. Moreover, spiders that underwent PMM lived longer than those that did not and their body sizes were significantly increased. Therefore, we concluded that nutritional condition rather than mating history affect PMM.
虽然蜕皮现象在许多动物尤其是节肢动物的发育过程中都会出现，但成熟后蜕皮（PMM，即生物体在性成熟后仍继续蜕皮）却很少受到关注。蜕皮机制已得到深入研究；然而，尽管有人认为PMM机制对体型发育至关重要，但其机制仍不为人知。在本研究中，我们调查了在陆地动物中具有最大程度两性异形的金球织网蜘蛛中可能诱发PMM的因素。我们控制雌性蜘蛛的交配史和营养消耗情况，以研究它们是否会影响PMM。结果表明，营养状况不佳的雌性蜘蛛成年后更有可能蜕皮，而交配对PMM的发生没有显著影响。此外，经历PMM的蜘蛛比未经历PMM的蜘蛛寿命更长，且体型显著增大。因此，我们得出结论，影响PMM的是营养状况而非交配史。
